A sewing machine, such as used in automatic selvedging equipment of the type described in my jointly filed and copending patent applications Ser. No. 507,868, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,138 and Ser. No. 507,869, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,780, has a stitching assembly comprised of a stitch plate formed with a needle hole, a presser foot that urges the web workpiece down against the smooth upper face of this plate, and transporters that can engage through the stitch plate to advance the workpiece in a transport direction. Typically the presser foot is also formed with a needle hole or slot and a vertically reciprocal needle can pierce through the goods between the foot and stitch plate in the intervals between advance steps of the web through the assembly. The transporters move in a standard up-back and down-forward movement.
When the web edge is the doubly folded-over edge of terrycloth having no-pile or loopfree edges such a machine rarely stitches true. Guiding the folded-over edge and feeding it accurately to the stitching location is fairly difficult, so the product is often spoiled.